Cruises visiting Recherche Bay

Currently we have no major cruise ships visiting Recherche Bay in the 2019-2021 seasons.

Future sailings will be shown here as they become available, and alternative ports in the region can be viewed at Australia Cruises. Please contact one of our cruise specialists today on 1800 121 187 if you require further assistance.

Recherché Bay is located in SE Tasmania, just 10 km from the most southerly point of Australia. In 1792 and 1793 it was a landing place of the d’Entrecasteaux expedition to find the missing French explorer La Pérouse. It is named in honour of the Recherché (Research), one of the expedition's ships. (Lapérouse was a French Naval officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania.) The Bay indeed was the location of the first scientific expeditions in Australia (botany, ethnology and geophysics). During the 1830s and 1840s it was the site of a bay whaling station as well as a base for pilots guiding ships up the D'Entrecasteaux Channel towards Hobart.

There are three small settlements on Recherché Bay – Catamaran, Recherché Bay and Cockle Creek. The main commercial activities in the later 19th century and into the early 20th century were timber-gathering, and coal mining mostly based around the township of Catamaran. In the 2000s controversy surrounded logging in the region which was under private ownership, and plans implemented to rehabilitate logged areas by the Tasmanian Land Conservancy. Part of the bay, being the NE peninsula area comprising 430 hectares, was included in the National Heritage List in 2005.

There is a camping area here, appropriate since no roads head further south. Activities include nature walks, birdwatching, fishing and boating. As a reminder of earlier whaling, there is a sculpture of a baby Southern Right whale at Fishers Point. Cockle Creek is at the entrance to the magnificent Southwest National Park that encompasses over six hundred thousand hectares of wild, inspiring country and forms part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. It is also the start of the 7-day South Coast Track.